Archive | Urban Design

Urban planners and some bicycle and pedestrian advocates tell me that “roundabouts are safer than traditional signalized intersections.” It comes up in the context of conversations about pedestrian-friendly urban street design. I hear this line a lot and see it on websites and in social media posts. In most cases, folks are parroting various viral […]

This is the final part of a series of posts about a study on Little Canada’s transportation infrastructure for people who take transit, walk, and/or bike. Final Thoughts As I finished up the last part last month, I have some final thoughts based off my experiences. I also discuss my biases and how they influence […]

National Summit Showcases Health, Economic and Social Justice Benefits of Walkable Communities Many things leap to mind when someone mentions walking: fitness, fun, fresh air, relaxation, friends and maybe your most comfortable pair of shoes. But a word that rarely arises is “power”. That will begin to change after the 2017 National Walking Summit (held […]

Saint Paul is not lacking for one or two story commercial buildings topped with billboards. This is frustrating on many levels – they are designed for drivers, not pedestrians; there are no design standards; and they are often ignored in “neighborhood character” discussions. The first two of those frustrations, driver-focused design and lack of design standards, are […]

September 7, 2015 34.5 Miles West End, Downtown, Dayton’s Bluff, Battle Creek, Highwood Hills A long ride to the eastern reaches of Saint Paul, which started with some quick stops, first on the West End. Today’s plan was to reach and explore Boys Totem Town, Ramsey County’s live-in program for boys 14 to 18 who […]

Almost every time a bikeway is proposed along an urban street we hear wailing about parking. This was the case with Cleveland Avenue in St Paul, with projects I’ve traded tweets with Bill Schultheiss on, and before you can even get the word ‘bike’ out of your mouth in Westminster (the rest of London doing […]

As a follow-up to the critique of a recent post about the urban design of Harriet’s Inn, let’s consider the parts of the city that inspire us and the standards to which we should be aspiring. To do so, we need only look past Harriet’s Inn, as well as the gold standard for old urbanism […]

At first blush, the new Harriet’s Inn at 40th Street and Lyndale Avenue in south Minneapolis is a nice addition to the city and its urban fabric. Jucy Lucy’s on the menu, Polygamy on a nitro tap, kids eat free on Tuesdays, what could go wrong!? Furthermore, the building has an attractive brick facade, big […]

With a grocery store proposed as part of a mixed-use development at 46th and Hiawatha (see the Planning Commission submittal to the Committee of the Whole last week for plans), it is time to review good urban standards for grocery store design. Grocery stores are complicated due to issues of customer access, parking, and truck […]

Minneapolis City Council Member Blong Yang would like you to choose one or the other. On Friday morning, the Minneapolis City Council voted 9-4 to approve the Glenwood Avenue North Reconstruction Project. Council members who voted against the proposed plan were Lisa Bender, Alondra Cano, Cam Gordon, and Elizabeth Glidden. Bender spoke in her best urban planning […]